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December 27 Daily Devotional

For Your Sakes

Frans Bakker

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. —2 Corinthians 8:9

Bible Reading

2 Corinthians 8:9

Devotional

Christ, who was rich, became very poor. Why was that necessary? When the Son of God came into this world, why did He have to become so unspeakably poor? The reason was because man had become spiritually bankrupt. Man was covered in debt and was totally unable to redeem himself.

Man was once rich in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. He was the image bearer of God. But man left the house of the Father and wasted all his possessions. Man fell so low that he had no rights with God anymore. He did not even deserve to receive a few rags to cover him. That is why Christ became so poor. It is, as Paul says, “for your sakes.” It is because of your sins.

Christ’s great humiliation happened for your sakes, not for His sake. He never ate of the forbidden fruit; man did that. Man sinned against heaven and this sin can never be paid back unless heaven takes this guilt and places it on Christ to pay for it. And that is what Christ did. He came down beside the prodigal son at the feeding trough of the swine. It started at His birth, for man is corrupt from his birth on. Thus Christ came in his birth to be able to redeem man from his birth on.

Who asked for this? No one! God’s people did not ask for Him. He came with grace for lost sheep who did not even realize they were lost in their sins. He came with grace for people who thought they were rich and had no want. Do you believe that you are bankrupt, or are you still rich in yourself? If you had been rich, then Christ would not have descended from heaven. Oh, how you need to have your eyes opened to see your own poverty!

There is grace freely given as long as there are poor sinners. Christmas is God’s call for lost sinners. We are blessed when we see that we have lost all rights before God. Then there is salvation for sinners. We, who have nothing, are welcome in the stable at the manger. Jesus understands our poverty, because He Himself came into that same poverty. He became man to experience what it is to be in the same spiritual poverty.

Christmas tells us to start not with a rich Christ but with a poor Christ. We must never forget that He became poor for our sakes. At Christmas when we remember Christ being so poor, we also see our own poverty. As long as we see that His poverty is our poverty, we have understood what Christmas is about. Christmas is for the poor and the miserable. They are a perfect match for a poor Christ. If Christ had been born in wealth and honor, then sinners would have had to stand at a distance, look from afar, and in reality never reach Him. But now He has come in human corruption and in poverty for their sakes. Now, Christ and sinners may meet one another!

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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